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Unable to boot - Safe Mode stops after crcdisk.sys

original title: Windows Vista 32-bit crashes as system is loading. Safe mode hangs after crcdisk.sys loads. System restore also fails.

My computer (an HP m9200t) no longer fully boots after installing a new windows update. When turned on the computer will begin to load windows and allow me sign in. However, about 30 seconds to 2 minutes after signing in I can no longer interact with my
desktop (although I can interact with programs that automatically load upon startup, like windows live messenger). I sometimes receive a screen that says "kbd.exe failed to initialize properly". I have tried to restore my system to a point before the update
loaded, but I am told my file system is corrupt. When I run a system diagnostic, I am told there is a problem with one of my hard drives. I have also tried to boot in safe mode, but the system hangs immediately after loading crcdisk.sys

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If the System Restore doesn't work, do a Startup Repair by booting to the genuine Windows Vista Installation Disk (or one you can borrow from ANYONE) or from a Recovery Disk. Here's the procedure:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial148.html. To boot to the CD you may need to change the BIOS to make
the CD-drive first in the boot sequence. To do that, wait for the screen that tells you the F key to push to access the boot menu or boot setup. Push it quickly. Make the changes, save your work, and exit. Put the CD in the drive and reboot. When prompted,
push any key to boot from the CD.

If that doesn't work, try to boot into safe mode (repeatedly click the F8 key while booting and go to safe mode with networking – or do so from the command prompt on the disk). Then let's check some of your system files:

Go to Start / All Programs / Accessories / Command prompt and right click on command prompt and click run as Administrator (you can skip this step if using the disk).

If using the disk, cd to C:\Windows\System32. Type sfc /scannow and enter and let it run. It will scan and try to fix some of your system files. Hopefully it will complete with no corruption it could not repair (if there is such corruption post back here
or try to analyze it to find the problem file(s) using http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928228. Try to post any corrupted files here so
we can see if they can be repaired with good copies from the installation disk (unless there are too many).

While in Command Prompt, type chkdsk /f /r and enter and let it run. It will want to schedule itself to run at the next restart. Answer yes and then reboot to run the program. It will scan and try to fix any corruption or bad sectors on your hard drive
and mostly remove that as a potential cause.

If that doesn't work, then please post any repeating error messages from the Event Viewer concerning startup (Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer). Here's how to use Event Viewer:
http://www.petri.co.il/vista-event-viewer.htm. Look in the System section.

If that doesn't work, try a clean boot http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135. If the problem goes away then it's just a
matter of tracking down the culprit causing the problem. Follow the procedures in the article. Once found, delete, remove, deactivate, or uninstall it. Once done be sure to reset Vista back to normal status as explained in the procedures. If the problem
occurs in clean mode then just restore the system to normal status and reboot - this solution is not going to work.

Boot into Safe mode with networking and see if the problem occurs there. Either result helps us narrow down the search for the cause.

You can also test your RAM at http://www.memtest.org/. If it fails, test each chip individually to find those that are bad and replace them. If it passes,
RAM is probably OK.

If that doesn't work, we'll need to do a system repair/upgrade using the genuine Windows Vista Installation Disk (one you own or one you can borrow from ANYONE). To do this you have to also be able to boot normally.Here's the procedure:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html. Although this will not affect your data,
settings, or programs, you should still backup your data before starting just to be on the safe side. You may have a lot of updates to re-install (including any service packs you had to remove). If the version on the system came with SP1 or SP2 pre-installed
and the disk is an earlier version, then you'll need to make a slipstream disk as follows:http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/151606-vista-sp1-slipstream-installation-dvd.html.

If that doesn't work (or you don’t have the disk), then I'm afraid the only option is a clean install. You can use Knoppixhttp://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html with
a good ISO copier like: http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm along with a blank CD. This should give you enough access to
the system (if you can't get in any other way) to backup your important data. Once done, you can do a clean install either using the genuine Windows Vista Installation Disk or the Recovery Disk or the Recovery Partition (whatever process is dictated by your
computer manufacturer – you may need to contact them for the procedure and perhaps to get recovery disks). To do a clean install proceed as follows:http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_install_03.asp (adapted
as necessary by the procedures of your computer manufacturer). Then you will need to re-install all your programs, reset all your preferences, reconfigure your network and email settings, restore your backed up data, run Windows Update with possibly nearly
100 updates pending,...

Hopefully one of these procedures will resolve or at least identify the cause of your problem.

Good luck!
Lorien - MCSE/MCSA/Network+/A+ --- If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.

Wow. You're really into cutting/pasting entire textbooks, aren't you? This is why having actual tech experience is A Good Thing as opposed to just having book learning. The error the OP is getting has nothing to do with Windows Updates or his RAM or malware.
It means that his hard drive is failing. And doing a clean install (as you suggest) on a failing hard drive isn't going to work, either.

To "Patrick Menge" - You can test the hard drive yourself or take the computer to a reputable local professional. You'll need to purchase a new hard drive and do a clean install/factory restore of Windows.

I beg to differ. This problem is not hardware it is software. I am trying to repair 12 laptops that all went down with this problem at the same time. System hangs on startup, forever and SafeMode shows the hang after crcdisk.sys loads. The crcdisk.sys
is the cause of hard drive corruption (mbr and others), however, the driver that has been corrupted and is the initial sickness I have not yet identified. Apparently caused by a Microsoft update installed on a system infected by some trojan, judging from
most of the info I have gathered over the past few days.

I have pulled out the "defective" hard drive and connected it as a secondary drive to another computer. By doing this I am able to read all of the information on the hard drive. That makes me think it is something in the windows software as well. I
didn't think my computer had a trojan at the time it went down, as I quite frequently check for them, but I guess you never know for sure. If you are able to find an answer to the problem, I would really like to know.

Try Startup Repair from the Recovery Console (if you have one) or from a Vista disk - if you do not
have a Vista disk you can borrow a friends (they are not copy protected) or make one. Also your
System maker will sell the physical disks cheap since you already own Windows.

I have already tried using a boot disk to do a startup repair and it did not work. The startup repair runs and says issues are fixed, but windows still stalls after a hard disk boot. I have already purchased another hard drive and reinstalled windows
and my machine is up and running again, so it is either the windows software or a failing disk. Like I said before, though, I am able to read information off of the old disk. Thank you for your help though, and I would welcome any other suggestions on how
to get the old drive up and running.

Wow people like you drive me nuts! Don't belittle the poster because you don't understand his situation. I am running into the exact same problem due to malware. The problem is bad enough without snarky dorks playing the know-it-all and throwing insults
around.

Iam having the same problem, with two Windows 7 machines failing to start up at the same time. I had a power failure, and found that the many "normal" troubleshooting cases I tried, including a fresh Windows 7 reinstall, all failed. All of the machines
uses SATA drives, one of the machines booted from an SSD drive. I've experienced many many power failures and never had a problem the CHKDSK didn't fix, but in this case even a fresh install from the Windows 7 install disk would not fix the problem. I reset
the CMOS, removed the battery from my motherboard, tried every repair option I could find. Eventually I disconnected all hard drives, bought a new drive and put that in, and installed Windows 7 on it. But when trying to reconnect the old drives, one at a
time, I could not even reformat the SSD drive, until I took it to my laptop (a third machine, it's looking good at 96% complete). The fact that the same hardware has two different results depending on which Win 7 machine I try to use it from tells me it's
a problem with the original machine. Yet I reset the BIOS settings, removed the battery, etc. I don't get it.

The way this happened to two of my machines at home, and possibly a third at work (I'll investigate tomorrow) all at the same time, combined with the user above who reported it happening to 12 machines, tells me this is something other than a drive failure
problem. It's not hardware, unless a software update problem fried these drives. I believe all of the drives were SATA drives, so perhaps there is a bug in a Windows Update SATA driver or something, so that they were all put into some form of error state
at the same time.

At any rate, I found the message from Malkeleah to be thin on reading
the problem and thick on abusing the poster who was trying to be helpful. I would report him for posting a message that offered no help but only insults, but it seems he is the moderator. I agree that the long reply was not helpful because it was
a shotgun reply trying to hit a target somewhere, but at least he was trying to help, and none of the insults help resolve the issue, which seems to me to be two-fold:

If the second problem was at least detected and resolved, perhaps it could report whatever the condition was that would have otherwise put crcdisk.sys in that state, and that would provide a clue here.

Man do you have issues. I came here looking for answers to the same hanging post-crcdisk.sys issue in Vista and I run headlong into a supposed MVP with this kind of attitude. The attitude guaranteed to keep someone like you out of management pretty much forever...and
with good reason.